The Universe From My Backyard Deep-Sky Images Of Celestial Wonders

Les has been capturing deep sky celestial images since 1994 from his home near Courtenay and from various locations in B.C. and western North America. As an avid astrophotographer, he has been a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and his photos have received a number of awards. He has been a witness to the transition from the unique requirements of film astro-imaging to those of digital imaging.

Les will put on a slide display of his celestial images that illustrate the majesty of the deep sky splendors to be found in the night skies right over our heads, and talk about his experiences taking them. He will also talk about the processes involved in taking and producing these images. The images he creates are mosaics of compiled time lapse images stacked upon each other. This creates vast images with incredible levels of detail. The images can take a few hour or up to many days to create! The talk will be flavoured with interesting and humorous anecdotes and new and little-known facts. He will also do a few interesting and fun demonstrations to review of some relevant basic concepts.